Friday, 6 June 2014

LECTIONARY PENTECOST: "Fire of heaven" (Acts 2:1-21)

Fire of heaven ignite in us
You are the Lord, you are the Lord
You are the lord of all

Fire of heaven you call us home
Into your arms, into your arms
Into your loving arms

Fire of heaven open our eyes
To see your glory, to see your glory
To see your glory and adore

Fire of heaven break through all pain
Set captives free, set captives free
Set captives free today

Fire of heaven break out in us
Release your gifts, release your gifts,
Release your gifts we pray

Fire of heaven you deserve praise
We worship your throne, we worship your throne
We’ll worship your throne always

Fire of heaven defeater of sin
Welcome us in, welcome us in

Welcome us into your heart

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Hi all, just two notes (with 3 extras) to go with this reading:

1. I've not used the gospel - it's Pentecost, it has to be the Acts reading!

2. The idea behind this piece came from a moment of prayer when the words of the first verse dropped into my head,

"Fire of heaven ignite in us, you are the Lord, you are the Lord, you are the Lord of all" 

The words felt like they came with something of a tune/melody and so I've written the rest of the piece to fit with that.

Now, three more things:

A. I'm not a singer or a songwriter in the traditional sense of the words: I don't write formal structured music, I've tried before and found writing words to fit arrangements or melodies is more musical hassle than I have the skills to deal with. I therefore know that in some verses like the third one, there are probably two too many syllables or beats or something - and so it goes on.

B. This felt very much like the potential beginning of a collaborative piece, which might be of use to folk as we approach Pentecost, you might like to add your own verses (whether they fit in terms of beats and syllables or not). I've been thinking about Taize chants for a while (and AntiTaize too - more on that later)

C. in an act of utter vulnerability I've attached a link to Soundcloud where you'll be able to find a one take recording with lots of pitching problems, issues with tune (yes I know) and awful singing, but as I'm not someone who writes music and I didn't want to just leave a "hummmm" track on Soundcloud I've put a vocal recording on there. Listen / giggle / create / ignore - I'm easy.


In a further act of vulnerability, if anyone does decide to write extra verses to this thing, please feel free to leave a comment below, or alternatively go do it on Twitter with the hashtag #fireofheaven 

Bless you.

PS
also, if anyone wants to re-record a version that sounds better and actually fits, please do, I'll happily put it on soundcloud and link it here!

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